Went fishing with my kids.  I get that it’s fishing and not catching so only catching one fish is fine.  But I’ve hired A LOT of fishing charters over the years.  I have never (until now) not cast a single rod nor reeled one in.  My daughter had the same experience and my son caught the one fish.  Cast none, reeled one. We were in mangroves with snapper and snook.  No effort was ever made.  My children (teenagers fell asleep).  This was the worst fishing experience I’ve ever had. Captain was nice but rarely talked, didn’t engage me or the kids, head in his phone or complaining that some other captain stole “his spot”.  When we got his spot, no fish, or any attempts.  He dropped lines in the water for 4 hours, checked the lines rarely and made zero attempt to engage us or the damn fish.  Again, I NEVER cast a reel or reeled one in. I apologized to my kids and even tipped the poor captain that certainly didn’t earn it.

Our experience was poor and we would not repeat it. The boat was way too small for 4 adults to be safely on it. The “captain” was very young and didn’t appear to be very experienced. We were scheduled to be out for 4 hours and ran out of bait after 2.5 hours (and Tommy threw several of the bait fish into the water to “entice” the tarpon) - clearly too little bait to begin with and ineffective management of the bait he did bring. At one point, on this extremely tiny boat, Tommy proceeded to urinate off the side of boat, within just a few feet of my friend. It was extremely inappropriate (he should have taken care of that before we left the dock). I was very disappointed in this experience - we regularly go out fishing when we take a vacation near the water, salt and fresh, and, in my 20 years of doing these expeditions, this was by far the worst experience we’ve ever had.

Captain Luis is not only a great fishing guide, but of Puerto Rico itself. We started off with two hard fighting Jack Crevelle. Capt.Luis coached my 13 yr old nephew through the fight, it was pretty fun to watch. While waiting for the next strike, we got so into conversation, I missed a tarpon strike that doubled over my rod in the holder, by the time I grab the rod the huge tarpon was airborne flinging my bait out of his mouth about 10 ft in the air, truly exciting and had me focused from then on. Next was the mangroves where we landed a snook and two tarpon completing our Gland Slam! Overall we had 9 strikes and landed 5 fish! If we ever go back to San Juan we will definitely look up our new friend Captain Luis Burgos. It was a great trip with a captain that was informative not only on Puerto Rico but more importantly, how to catch and land tarpon. Next time we fish for tarpon anywhere we’ll always remember to “Bow to the King!”  We highly recommend Captain Luis at Backwater Fishing Charters. Thanks for a great fishing trip and experience.